Where stereotypes are found:

Couple in a cage-- gender, race

-critique, call attention to. Juxtaposition of old and new

Chinese opera- movements for gender

Gerald McMaster
-LAST FILM (last great hunt)

Ballet Folklorico
-gender stereotypes (movement, roles)
-nationality (of mexico) small town, happy

Black Film Aesthetics-- Margolis

-rhetorical strategies: ways of presenting material to a public to help them understand in a certain way.
(analogy, symbolism, metaphor, personification, stereotyping)
-looking at self-directed stereotyping:
use of stereotypes by victims of stereotypes in order to call attention to the rediculousness of the
stereotype. (us to us, not them to us)
Margolis: neutral----------------------------------impactful
Dyer: types-----------------------------------------stereotypes

M: *we can use stereotypes to positively influence

• Townsend (Shuffle):
plot: Back actor cast as a gangster... grandma tries to discourage because of black stereotypings.
decision of principles or job? Become a postal worker.
*realist approach, nothing to critique. Display black stereotype in a clear way as negative and fictional,
replace negative stereotypes with positive and real. CLEAR message.
intention:
reception:

• Wayans (Sucka):
plot: returns home fromarmy, little brother has been killed. Now he's after the criminal who killed his
brother, with help of misfit friends. Wants to be a community hero.
*everything is rediculous and stereotyped, nothing is serious. Paints everyone with the same brush, but
it changes... challenges you to figure out what he's trying to imply. Questioning the process of
stereotyping.
intention:
reception:

aesthetic strategies:

distanciation (wayans): creating a distance, critically interpreting and understanding (brecht's

theory) what is being performed. Active. (constructing, relates to barthes: open text)
realism (townsend): Telling you what you need to take from it, spoon feeding. Passive. (closed
 text)

Intersectability between certain aspects of gender

class, gender, race, generation

M.Butterfly
The author , Dorrine Kondo, discusses two very different, oppositional understandings of identity.
Describe them, providing specific examples of each from the play. How does either of these
understandings of identity relate to stereotypes.

Opera: (limited, using stereotypes in non-critical way, constructed in binary relation)

Butterfly:delicate, self-sacrifice for man, steretypical japanese suicide, modest, honour-driven, east
Pinkerton: dominating, “saving”, hunter/wanderer, west

Play: (broader, use of stereotypes to raise questions about stereotypes, ambiguous construction)
Song: sings, movements in dance, exoticized (kimono with makeup), high voice, delicate, gentle,
modest, submissive, but also a man: a masculine stong-shaped person, chinese man playing japanese
woman (west can't tell the difference)
Galliard: west, ignorant, underestimating east's political power, commits suicide dressed as a geisha

-identity as a performance
-fixed, entity vs ambiguous, performance
-vietnam war (surprised that they didn't win... imasculated)
-shifting power
-“ambiguity” vs “essentialist”
-differences
David Huong's intention: golden nugget of European opera, critically, ironically appropriation of story
to subvert negative stereotype

We have examined how aspects of identity- gender, race, age, sexuality, etc. often intersect. Discuss
how gender and race are inextricably linked in M. Butterfly. Provide specific examples from the play.

Gender roles vary between cultures. Power relations vary between race and gender.
Man vs. Woman (man=power, woman=weak)
West vs. East (west=power, east=weak)
One vs. Other

The playwright, David Henry Hwang, uses stereotypes of men/women, East/West in his critique of a
bounded, essentialist identity. Is it necessary to reinscribe stereotypes in order to subvert them? In what
ways do you think Hwang is successful r not in using this strategy? How does this strategy relate to that
of strategic essentialism?

Like self-directed stereotypes

Strategic essentialism:Women can talk about women in essentialist way, political strategy “short term”
political strategy
Why might a director choose to have a “real” woman play the role of Song? How wold DHW 's critique
of gender oppression and orientalism be srtrenghened and/or undermined by such a decision